Unstable chemical destroyed at UCSD campus

LA JOLLA  Hazardous materials crews and a bomb squad destroyed a test tube containing an explosive chemical in a University of California San Diego laboratory building Friday.

No one was injured and university officials said no one in the area was in danger.

However, they evacuated Urey Hall, the lab building off South Scholars Drive and La Jolla Shores Drive, and cordoned off the building’s perimeter for nearly five hours.

The incident began about 7 a.m., when a physics graduate student reported the chemical to campus environmental health and safety officers, said Kim McDonald, campus spokesman.

The student had worked Thursday night with an industrial solvent called Decalin during a light-scattering experiment in the basement of the seven-story building. As she was trying to figure out how to dispose of the chemical, which was in a test tube, she read that as it becomes unstable and explosive when exposed to air, McDonald said.

Campus safety officials evaluated the situation and called in city and county hazardous materials crews and the bomb squad about 8:30 a.m.

“They felt the best way to handle it was to remove it from the building and take a blasting cap and destroy the chemical,” McDonald said.

That was done about 12:15 p.m. on a landing just outside the basement, he said. Students were allowed back into the building afterward.